Alexander Piratinsky, Vice-President ICC and Prof. at Ural State Technical University

In 1973 the All-Union Coach Council for climbing competition was founded. It united the leading specialists of this country to help the sportsmen in training, holding and judging of contests. For many years the Coach Council led by V. Putintsev was the center for generating and implementing the progressive ideas in the theory, methods, organization and development of both mass climbing and the level of highest achievements. The competition rules and categories were changed essentially. Trade-Union Seminars on climbing started to be held in different regions of the country. Tremendous work has been done in these years by the enthusiasts of climbing.

Competition for the Evgeny Abalakov Prize, Krasnoyarsk, 1979

In 1976 the item „Climbing competition" was included in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia and the book „Climbing competition", written by I.Antonovich was published. In those years the competitions were held on rocks with 75-85 degree steepness. The difficulty of the individual routes was high. The routes were very high (60-90 meters) and included overhanging parts. In order to win it was necessary not only to finish the route but also to show the best time. For example, the route of individual climbing of the USSR Championship 1975 which was held at the Krasnoyarsk Stolby only five men from 500 reached the TOP.

Competition in race pairs (two routes 40-60 m) were the same as modem speed category. It was thought, that the best in this sport deserved different kinds of performance and it was necessary to develop high levels of physical, technical, functional abilities and psychological stability.

Besides sportsmen could watch climbing of other participants which required additional concentration of their attention. The competitions were very complex. More than 130 climbers took part in the Trade Union Championship 1982 in Crimea on the rock with a height of more than 100 m. The men and women competed in race pairs, on three routes of individual climbing: „short" (60-50 m), „long" (90-70 m) and „final" (120-90 m), but also in „binding".

Duration of this competitions was 10 days. By the way, time recording including the intermediate times was done with the help of electronic device for the first time. A lot of problems were encountered in the training of coaches. Therefore the first All-Union Coach School was formed in 1982. At the head of the school were the best coaches of the USSR, A.Piratinsky and V.Putintsev. Among the teachers were the physiologist A. Pomanov, the designer of equipment V. Kozlov and the best climber, A. Demin.

Preparations to Start, 1975

Since 1983 the Russian National Championship take place every year. The first All-Union Trade Youth Championship were held in 1984 and a year later the first USSR Youth Championship took place. It was a real victory in this of sport. Since 1985 ranking points for appearing at the climbers competitions of I and II class were introduced.

In 1987 „Fizkultura i Sport" Publishing house printed a book „Training of a climber" by A. Piratinsky - it is still the only available textbook in Russian for coaches and sportsmen practicing on natural and artificial rocks.

1988 began the regular participation at the international competitions. The best results were shown by V. Balezin, F. Zhirnova, N. Kosmatcheva, S. Likhova.

1989 A. Tchertov was awarded the silver medal by the UIAA „For high sport achievement".

All the years from 1991 were very good years for our National Team. Apart from winning many medals at international competitions, Russia has organized the World Cup - 94, 95, 96 and the Youth World Championship 96. Russian competitions regularly attract more than 300 participants from over 50 cities. The most important event in developing competition climbing took place from July 16-18,1998 in Moscow.
The World Youth Games was organized under patronage of the IOC. Competition climbing was included in the program, it was the Youth World Championship.

This article was published in the Bulletin of the UIAA #2/1998. Julia Inozemtseva is on the cover.

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